Illegal Immigrant Accused of Killing Laken Riley Gets Indicted, Slapped with New Accusation
An illegal immigrant from Venezuela who is accused of killing nursing student Laken Riley near the University of Georgia campus in February was hit with a “peeping Tom” charge Tuesday.
Fox News reported 26-year-old José Antonio Ibarra, who police say beat and suffocated 22-year-old Riley in Athens on Feb. 22, was indicted on 10 charges by a Georgia grand jury Tuesday afternoon.
The Venezuelan national had already been charged with murder, but the 10-count charging document also alleges Ibarra had “spied upon” a UGA staff member through a window on the day of Riley’s brutal killing.
A copy of the inducement obtained by Fox News and signed by District Attorney Deborah Gonzalez laid out the circumstances of the charge.
The indictment said Ibarra “did unlawfully go on the premises of the University of Georgia, University Housing Village Building ‘S’ … for the purpose of becoming a peeping tom.”
BREAKING NOW: ⚠️ Illegal immigrant Jose Ibarra INDICTED for the murd-er of Laken Riley..
Jose Ibarra, an undocumented immigrant from Venezuela, was indicted on 10 counts by a grand jury in Georgia on Tuesday..
Ibarra is also accused of spying on staff members at the… pic.twitter.com/zuoqDsGBC6
— Chuck Callesto (@ChuckCallesto) May 8, 2024
The charge continued that Ibarra allegedly “did peep through the window and spied upon and invaded the privacy of [name redacted].”
Ibarra’s alleged spying on someone was unknown to the general public until the indictment was released.
In addition to the peeping Tom charge, Ibarra is charged with one count of malice murder; three counts of felony murder; one count of kidnapping with bodily injury; one count of aggravated assault with intent to rape; one count of aggravated battery; one count of obstruction or hindering a person making an emergency phone call; and one count of tampering with evidence.
The document further laid out how police say the illegal immigrant killed Riley through “blunt-force trauma to her head.”
He also allegedly suffocated her in “a manner unknown to jurors.”
The man also attempted to undress the woman, grand jurors found when looking at the evidence.
Riley, a UGA graduate, was attending nursing school at Augusta University when she was murdered.
She went missing briefly on the afternoon of Feb. 22 after she went out for a jog and was found by campus police dead at Athens’ Oconee Forest Park a short while later.
Her suspected killer illegally entered the country in September 2022 near El Paso, Texas.
He was briefly detained after crossing, according to WXIA-TV, but was released and was put by federal agents onto a bus headed for New York with his wife.
Ibarra had a previous criminal record in Georgia and had been charged with shoplifting in Athens but was not deported, WXIA reported.
Athens is a so-called sanctuary city for illegal immigrants.
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